Elon Musk and the ADL: Nazi salutes and Holocaust jokes

I suspect Elon Musk only made his recent post of Holocaust jokes because the ADL failed to give him the condemnation he was seeking when he did a Nazi salute.

The Nazi salute

Here is Elon at an inauguration event making a Nazi salute, then turning and repeating it to also salute those behind him:

The ADL responded by exonerating him: “It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.”

Musk was not expecting that. He was aiming for condemnation. He responded to the ADL with a thanks and an emoji crying with laughter. He knew they should have been calling him out on it, and he found it hilarious that they didn’t.

In case you don’t speak emoji, this is the emoji for crying:

And this is the emoji for crying with laughter:

The Holocaust jokes

A couple of days later Musk posted a series of Holocaust jokes.

This time the ADL condemned him.

Why did Musk do this? It was to bait the response he wanted. Those who were arguing “He’s so pro-Jewish he is practically a Jew!” and (like Israel’s Prime Minister) that it wasn’t a Nazi salute because Musk is pro-Israel, will have a hard reconciling their defence of him with his latest antics.

What’s really going on?

Musk is a troll. He always has been. Behaving like a Nazi is classic immature trolling. Pol on 4Chan started like this, before actual neo-Nazis made the fascism serious. That led to people being radicalised and deadly violent extremism resulted.

Part of the trolling relates to internet folk law, specifically Godwin’s law which says “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one”, i.e. it becomes a certainty this will eventually occur. The tradition is that when this occurs, the person who made the Nazi or Hitler analogy is deemed to have “lost” the argument.

Musk, by making people (specifically Jews, liberals, anyone else who opposes fascism) accuse of him of Nazism is seem by his Alt-Right internet fans as striking a blow by making all those who called him out automatically “loose” the argument.

This highlights a problem. Godwin’s law doesn’t apply when someone actually is engaged in Nazi activity. In a op-ed in the Washington Post on 20 December 2023 Godwin wrote: “First, has the sheer absurdity of so many hyperbolic Nazi comparisons in popular culture made us less vigilant about the possible reemergence of actual fascism in the world? I think it shouldn’t — comparisons to Hitler or to Nazis need to take place when people are beginning to act like Hitler or like Nazis.” It is an exception. You don’t “loose the argument” when calling out actual Nazi activity.

Have any doubt that Musk is a troll? Here is a post from Musk within the last 24 hours:

And another recent post shows musk again crying with laughter as he agrees with a post that shows Musk as the Alt-Right mascot Pepe the Frog, and in Roman dress which is a reference to the Nazi salute which is also known as a “Roman Salute”.

The claim by those using it that they are imitating ancient Rome not the Nazis has been tried and rejected in the courts. One reason this argument fails, is that the Romans never actually used the salute.

The history of the salute

The earliest known use of the “Roman Salute” was in Jacques-Louis David’s famous painting The Oath of the Horatii (1784), though he also used it in depicting the Tennis Court Oath of the French revolution, and in The Distribution of the Eagles to glorify Napoleon. Others used it when depicting Romans in art and plays in the 18th and 19th century, and then it was popularised in early film representations of Romans.

It’s first use as an actual political gesture, not an artistic representation of one, came in 1919. Gabriele D’Annunzio, a famous Italian poet, took 2,000 men and invaded and occupied Fiume in Yugoslavia. D’Annunzio like processions and ceremonies, he made long rhetorical speeches from balconies as he shouted down to the eager crowds below. He asked for their consent, and they gave it, raising their arms in a gesture that was soon the salute we know today.

Mussolini knew D’Annunzio and copied his style, including the use of the salute. Hitler took it from Mussolini, and acknowledged this, but claimed to have found historic use of it in German history allowing him to “reclaim” it. That part Hitler made up. The salute stuck.

The bottom line

Unfortunately the ADL’s credibility is now damaged. If they got it so wrong before, people have a right to wonder why they should listen to them now? After all, many of the same excuses that were applied to the salute, can still be argued in relation to the Holocaust jokes.

The problem was the shift away from objective fact-based judgement. That should never have occurred in the first place. If we allow “alternative facts” to be regarded as equally valid, if we only recognise Nazi symbols as problematic when done by those we dislike, then everything becomes subjective. In such a subjective world, whether the Nazis were evil, or whether they should have finished the job, becomes nothing but a matter of opinion. That is a dangerous world not just for Jews, but for everyone.

Musk’s post is a problem, as was the salute, and this behaviour normalises antisemitism and helps to rehabilitates Nazism. That’s why it must be condemned, regardless of who is doing it, or what you think about them. Yes, there do need to be exceptions, for example allowing images of the salute to be shown in Holocaust museums, but jokes or riling up a crowd, or trolling for reactions, are the sort of thing we should make exceptions for. That holds true whether it is an exception to the law in Australia, or an exception to social condemnation in the US.

The US model of free speech relies on the idea that public pressure and counter speech are the solution to hate speech. That requires people to speech up, strongly, when they see harmful speech symbols, or gestures. A society that excuses it, whether at law, or in the public discourse, is a society where hate has become normalised. It is a society at risk of an increase in extremist violence.

Appendix: Yes, it was a Nazi salute

Just to be absolutely clear, as I said on social media, it was a Nazi salute. I say that having worked for decades on antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and far-right extremism. In the past year part of my work has focused on Nazi salutes, Nazi Swastikas, and other Nazi symbols as Australia, and various Australian states, have drafted, debated, and passed laws to ban these symbols of Nazism. I have made submissions, advised politicians, and served as an expert for police and the courts.

Other experts also called it out. While the current head of the ADL dismissed it, Abe Foxman who headed the ADL for 27 years and is himself a child survivor of the Holocaust, called it out as a Nazi salute.

The US Shoah Foundation issued a warning about Nazi salutes, condemning their use. While it didn’t directly mention Musk, it was clearly a response to the Musk salute. Their Executive Director, Dr Rob Williams, who shared the post, also serves as UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research, and Advisor to International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Dr Dave Rich from the CST in the UK, another expert on antisemitism and Nazism, also called it out as a Nazi salute directly.